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| Another Big Change Comes To WERV-FM: DJ/PD Fired |
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| Written by Larz | |||
| Friday, 07 January 2011 15:27 | |||
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Two days ago, this site talked about a change that was occurring at WERV-FM/95.9 The River in west-suburban Aurora. Last night, an even bigger change took place. Program Director and afternoon drive DJ Matt Mellen was fired from the station.
This gives Matt Mellen the unfortunate distinction of being the first fired Chicagoland radio personality of 2011, with his forced exit coming only six days into the new year. Mellen joined WERV in November 2008, taking over as Program Director and then afternoon host after Matt Dubiel left the station. He had previously worked at WTAO-FM in Marion-Carbondale, IL, where he also was Program Director of that downstate Active Rock station. Insiders tell CRM that, while still a surprise, Mellen had a suspicion this move was coming. This was especially so after the switch earlier this week, reversing Leslie Harris' and Danielle Tufano's shifts happened. The switch was made by General Manger Patrick Pendergast, with no advance consultation with Mellen. NextMedia Chicago management simply wanted to make a change and take the PD duties in a new direction. Matt Mellen tells CRM that this is just the way it goes in radio and he wished the station the best. He lives with his family in southwest suburban Plainfield and will now look for his next challenge. Replacing Matt Mellen in the afternoon shift and as Program Director is Mark Zander, at least in the interim. Zander also has been filling-in as the midday host at sister-station WRXQ-FM recently. He will now only be working on the air live on WERV-FM, working the afternoon shift, as well as being Interim PD for the classic rock/classic hits station. Zander has formerly worked at many Chicago stations including on WLUP-FM, WCKG-FM, WRCX-FM and WXXY-FM. Zander continues to run the successful syndicated shows "The Rockin' 80's" and "The Rockin' 70's," which are heard nationwide. In addition to all that, he has been a radio instructor at Columbia College Chicago. UPDATE: The paragraph concerning Zander (just above) has been updated & changed to reflect some current & more accurate information. 
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